Inspired by Kete's 103 Movies You Have To See poll, I figured it might be fun to do the same for albums. As with the movies poll, the goal of this thread is to generate a list of albums that should be experienced by everyone at least once in their life. The only qualification for nominating an album is that, for whatever reason, you feel it is important enough to deserve a place on a list of the top 100 must-listen-to albums of all time.

Feel free to make a case for your nominations, or even post a song from the album so people can check out a representative sample. Here is a handy how-to guide for embedding YouTube videos.

Hopefully, the list will serve as a celebration of great music, as well as a way for people to be exposed to music they may not have experienced. If it turns out we get to one-hundred albums and feel we haven't even scratched the surface, we can always keep going.

Here's how it works. There are two phases: Nomination Phase and Voting Phase.

Nomination Phase:Post your nominations in the thread. Please bold your nominations so they stand out and don't get lost in the shuffle.One nomination per person, per session.Please post a YouTube clip of a representative song from the album, and include a statement as to why you believe the album is worthy of a spot on the list.All nominations are considered, and once we receive ten nominations, the poll will start.There is no limit on how many times an album can be nominated, but if your nomination doesn't win, let it rest for at least five rounds.A new nomination session will begin once the previous poll begins.

Voting Phase:The poll will last for one week.Everyone gets ten votes per poll.The top vote recipients from each poll will be immortalized on the All Y'all Need to Hear This!!! list.

I would say this is Santana's most 'in depth' album (most complex sound and composition). One of only two albums I thought worthwhile enough to upgrade to a gold Mobile Fidelity remaster CD (not that I wouldn't have done so with more than two CDs, it's just they never offered more than two I thought worth it [the other gold CD I bought being Dark Side of the Moon]).

Before this gets going, though, I have a thought: What if rather than ranking the suggested albums, we each had a large number of votes and each nominee that gets above a certain number of votes gets on the list, regardless of how many or how few winners there are. That way, we wouldn't have as many split votes, and we wouldn't have to choose between famous and obscure.

Just a thought. Oh and also, shouldn't the poll last at least a week? Seems like there's far less chance that people will have heard the other entries, and I, for one, would like the time to listen to all of them before voting.

B.B. King — Indianola Mississippi Seeds: The best album from the world's best known blues artist. This album has the most variety of any blues album I've heard, from slow, "Woke up this morning" blues, to swinging dance grooves. Lucille wails in its trademark piercing, pure, electric notes while a full brass and string ensemble backs 'her' up. ...Seeds contains such gems as "Chains and Things," "Ask Me No Questions (And I'll Tell You No Lies)," and "Hummingbird."

MontyServo

Just a thought. Oh and also, shouldn't the poll last at least a week? Seems like there's far less chance that people will have heard the other entries, and I, for one, would like the time to listen to all of them before voting.

I wholeheartedly agree with this. Give us time to listen to all of the entries (if we so desire). I would attempt to do this with each poll.

What if rather than ranking the suggested albums, we each had a large number of votes and each nominee that gets above a certain number of votes gets on the list, regardless of how many or how few winners there are. That way, we wouldn't have as many split votes, and we wouldn't have to choose between famous and obscure.

So, everyone would get ten votes? What would be a reasonable qualifying number? Maybe we should do a few rounds and see how many people are voting per round, and then make it a minimum percentage.

Quote

Oh and also, shouldn't the poll last at least a week? Seems like there's far less chance that people will have heard the other entries, and I, for one, would like the time to listen to all of them before voting.

I wonder how many have the time or the inclination to go get the albums and listen to them, but okay. I could see this turning into more of a listening club, anyway. However, I think people should include a video of what they think is the best song off the album, and maybe write at least a sentence or two about why they believe the album should be included. Before I go around getting albums, I'd like to at least hear a representative sample. I'm not gonna track something down that I know I'm not gonna like.